The Academy's Newest Duelist
by Ghostboy814
Summary: Vlad gives Danny a deck and duel disk and enrolls him at Duel Academy. Now all that remains is to see what house to put him in, and the only way to find out is by having a student duel him to test his skill. So guess who Danny's opponent is?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!**

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"Why am I doing this again?" fifteen-year-old Danny Fenton asked as he sat across from his archenemy Vlad Masters. The two of them were seated in a helicopter that was currently flying over miles and miles of ocean. 

"Because, Daniel, you won't let me teach you chess," the elder halfa replied. "I figured that you would rather learn this more popular strategic game, and learn lessons about tactics in the process." Danny pulled out the deck that Vlad had given him and began looking through his cards. He froze once he saw one of the fusion monsters.

"You didn't," he growled through gritted teeth.

"What are you talking about Daniel?" Danny held up the card. Vlad smirked.

"Oh yes, I did. Tell me, is the illustration accurate?"

"Too accurate. How could you do this? You know it'll never come to pass."

"Not in the real world, but in the realm of Duel Monsters, anything is possible." Danny sighed as he put the card back into the deck and stowed the deck away. He opened his mouth, about to tell Vlad to get a cat, when suddenly the helicopter began making its descent. "Oh, before I forget, you'll be needing this," Vlad said as he handed Danny a duel disk.

"The chopper landed and both halfas climbed out onto the landing area. Danny stared in awe; they were on top of a massive building with three domes, one blue, one yellow, and one red. There were a few obelisks surrounding the building, and Danny could see a few additional buildings, probably dorms, sticking out from among the deep foliage that covered the majority of the island. He turned around and jumped back in surprise when he saw the massive volcano just a few miles away. Vlad nudged him and he turned his gaze back to the tarmac and noticed two men approaching him. One was tall and broad, and wearing a red blazer. He was bald but had a beard that covered most of the lower part of his face. The other was also tall but wiry. He wore his blonde hair in a mushroom cut, and had a long, lumpy face. He wore a pink shirt underneath his blue blazer, and it looked as though he was wearing purple lipstick and eyeliner. _This guy could give Sam a run for her money as far as Goth make-up goes_, the young halfa thought to himself.

"Hello and welcome to Duel Academy, Mr. Fenton!" The first man said. His booming voice indicated to Danny that he was strict, but kind. "My name is Chancellor Shepherd, and my colleague is Dr. Crowler. He'll be one of your teachers here." Both men shook hands with Vlad, then Danny. "I'd like to tell you that we'll immediately give you your uniform and dormitory assignments, but here at Duel Academy it's not that simple. You see, Mr. Fenton, students here are ranked based on their aptitude, so we'll have to see you in a duel before we can assign you." He turned to Vlad. "You're welcome to stay and watch if you like."

"Thank you, I look forward to seeing Daniel duel." The four men descended the nearby stairs and walked through the halls to the main arena. They entered it and saw that it was packed. Danny, being the naturally shy kid that he was, immediately became nervous at the prospect of having to duel in front of all of these people.

"Excuse me, but can I please go to the bathroom first? It was kind of a long flight."

"Of course, the restrooms are down the hall, third door on the left," Crowler replied.

"Thanks," he said and ran off. After doing his business, he sat down on one of the benches and held his head in his hands. "How am I gonna be able to do this?" he exasperatedly asked himself.

"Hey, don't worry," a voice said. Danny looked up and saw a student about his age standing in front of him. He had messy brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a red blazer over his black shirt, and also wore red shoes.

"Who are you?" Danny asked.

"My name's Jayden. What's yours?"

"Danny. Danny Fenton."

"What are you so worried about?"

"Well, I have to go out into a packed arena and duel an experienced duelist even though I have no experience whatsoever and I'm afraid of being the center of attention."

"Hey, don't worry about it. As long as you believe in your cards, you'll do fine. And as for the crowds, just imagine them in their underwear. It always works for me!"

"Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better now." He got up and shook Jayden's hand.

"Well, I've gotta go, I've got a duel also and I don't want to be late!" Jayden ran off in the direction of the arena. Danny sighed and looked at his deck one more time. He flipped through it and saw a couple of cards. He gave a small smile as he saw the magic card and the monster that were looking back at him. His smile turned to a look of determination and he headed out to the arena.

"Great, you're back, Danny. Now we can begin! You're opponent will be a Slifer slacker, Jayden Yugi!" Crowler informed him. Danny started as he looked at the stage, where his new friend Jayden was standing on one side.

"Hey, Danny!" he called and waved at the hybrid. "Looks like we'll be dueling each other. Isn't this great!"

"Yeah, at least now I know the person I'm up against!" Danny shouted back.

"You two know each other?" Crowler asked.

"Jayden gave me a few words of encouragement back in the locker room."

"Oh. Very well, now get on stage and start your duel." Danny climbed onto the stage and placed his deck inside his duel disk.

"DUEL!" he and Jayden shouted as their disks morphed and got ready for the duel.

"Since you're the guest here, you should go first," Jayden offered.

"Thanks! In that case, I'll play Box Lunch (200/300), but sacrifice her to summon Technus, Ghost Master of Science and Electrical Technology (2000/2000). I'll also play the trap card Lightning Rod, which gives him an additional 1000 attack points, bringing them to a total of 3000 for one turn." He placed the cards on his duel disk and a hologram of Technus 2.0 holding his signature weapon appeared in front of him.

"Good move." He drew. "Sweetness! I'll use Polymerization to fuse elemental heroes Sparkman and Clayman to form elemental hero Thunder Giant (2400/2200). And he has a special ability-on the turn that he's summoned; he gets to automatically destroy any monster whose original attack points are lower than his own. That means that even though Technus has 3000 attack points, since before you played the magic card he only had 2000 so he still gets destroyed." Thunder Giant formed a ball of electricity in his claw-like hands, and threw it at Technus, causing a large explosion. But when the smoke cleared, Technus was still standing. "Hey, what gives?" he asked.

"Technus' special ability. All other monsters whose special abilities involve electricity don't affect him. Now, Technus, attack his Thunder Giant!" Technus whacked Thunder Giant with his lightning rod and destroyed him, lowering Jayden's life points to 3400. However, since Lightning Rod's effects only last for one turn, it disappeared right after and Technus' attack points went back to 2000.

"In that case, I summon elemental hero Rottweiler (1200/1000) in defense mode, and throw down a facedown." The mechanical dog appeared in front of Jayden, as well as a facedown card.

"Well, since we're both dog lovers, I'll summon Cujo the puppy (0/200), and a facedown." A small, green, ghost dog and a facedown appeared in front of Danny. "But I'll attack your Rottweiler now with Technus." Technus charged up a green cloud of binary and cast it at Rottweiler.

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Monster Switch of Doom! It lets me put one of your monsters on the receiving end of an attack instead of mine, and also destroys the monster that sent the attack!" Cujo yipped happily and ran over to Jayden's side of the field, where he was hit by the beam of zeroes and ones. Technus began shaking violently and then he exploded, lowering Danny's life points to 2000.

"Thanks for that. When Cujo the puppy is in my graveyard, I can activate the spell card Chew Toy, which allows me to summon Cujo the guard dog (2000/1500)!" Danny's facedown rose up, revealing a card illustrated with Cujo's little pink squeaky toy. The card exploded in a flash of blinding green light, and out of the light stepped Cujo's larger, more imposing form. "Cujo, attack Jayden's Rottweiler!" The beast complied and destroyed the smaller dog.

"It's me who should be thanking you. You see, when Rottweiler is destroyed while it's in defense mode, I can bring back one elemental hero and Polymerization." Sparkman and Polymerization were both ejected from Jayden's graveyard. "I'll play Sparkman (1200/1000) in defense mode for now, and end my turn."

"In that case, I summon Skuker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter!" a hologram of Skulker appeared in front of Danny (1400/2200). "First, I'll destroy Sparkman with Cujo." The large ghost dog tore Sparkman apart, leaving Jayden defenseless. "Then, I'll attack you directly with Skulker!" A missile launcher popped out of Skuker's armor and fired half a dozen missiles at Jayden."

"AAAH!" he screamed as they made contact and lowered his life points to 2000. He slowly got up from the floor, panting, but smiled once he saw the cards he drew. "I play elemental hero Bladedge (2600/2200)! Bladedge cut Skulker down to size!" Bladedge destroyed Skuker and brought Danny's lifepoints down to 800.

"I sacrifice Box Ghost (500/700) to summon Plasmius, the evil halfa (2500/2200)!" And when I play him in defense mode, his special ability, duplication, activates and Plasmius duplicates appear in all of my empty monster card slots." Four Plasmius duplicates appeared in front of Danny, all of them crouched down in a defensive position. "I'll put Cujo in defense mode and end my turn." The large ghost dog sat on his haunches and awaited further orders.

"Great, because I just got another great draw! I got Wildheart, who I can fuse with Bladedge to create Wildedge!" The elemental hero (2900/2500) appeared before Jayden. "Wildedge, attack a Plasmius duplicate!" Wildedge sliced one of the duplicates in half and destroyed it.

"Thanks for opening up one of my monster card slots! Now, I can sacrifice Cujo," the dog whined and then blew up, "to summon Phantom, the good halfa!" A card appeared in front of Danny and out of it rose his ghostly alter ego (1800/2000). "Although, in retrospect, I would've been able to do that without you taking out one of my Plasmius duplicates, but at the same time I love seeing Plasmius get beaten. Enjoying the match, Vlad?" He called over to the stands. Vlad cursed to himself but put on an excited demeanor so as to preserve his secret identity.

"Yes, Daniel, it's very interesting so far!" he replied.

"Why'd you do that? Phantom's not strong enough to beat Wildedge."

"Not yet he isn't, but he will be. First, though, I'm switching all three of my remaining duplicates to attack mode and sacrificing two ofthem." The three Plasmius duplicates all stood up and grinned evilly, their hands glowing with pink ectoplasmic energy, and then two exploded. "Then, I play the spell card Grave Robber, which lets me use one of the spell cards in your graveyard, and I choose polymerization!" a small goblin materialized behind Danny holding Jayden's polymerization. Danny gulped, afraid of the move he was about to make despite the fact that it would win him the match. "Now I'll fuse Plasmius with Phantom to create Dan Phantom, the Ultimate Enemy!" Phantom and one of the duplicates rose into the air and began to swirl around each other in an odd vortex. They spun faster and faster, until the vortex became a huge, gaping black hole. And out of this black hole stepped Dan. He wore an evil smirk on his face and his gaze sent chills up Jayden's spine.

"And for every monster in my graveyard, he gets 1000 attack points." Since Box Lunch, Box Ghost, Skulker, Technus, little Cujo, big Cujo, and three Plasmius duplicates were all in Danny's graveyard, Dan's attack points rose to 9000. "Now, Dan, attack with Ghostly Wail!" Dan inhaled deeply, allowing spectral power to amass in his diaphragm, and unleashed his most powerful attack. Everyone in the room covered their ears as the sonic blast ripped through Wildedge and brought Jayden's life points down to zero. The duel ended and Dan faded out of existence. Everyone in the room stood in awe of what had just happened. Jayden got up and began to clap slowly. Syrus and Chum-Lee joined in. Then Zane and Alexis. Then Crowler, Shepherd, and Vlad. Suddenly everyone in the arena was applauding Danny. Danny blushed slightly and took a bow. Everyone clapped even harder. Danny walked over to the defeated Jayden.

"That was a great duel. You rock!"

"So did you, I can't believe you've never dueled before now! How did you use those monsters so well?" Danny smirked.

"Let's just say I know most of my cards on a personal level." Crowler climbed up onto the stage.

"You're an excellent duelist, Mr. Fenton. The Chancellor and I both think that you should be an Obelisk Blue."

"That's awesome!" Jayden exclaimed, "you get the best dorms, food, everything!"

"Are you an Obelisk also?"

"Nah, I'm a Slifer. Our facilities aren't the greatest, but we get by."

"We can still be friends even though we're in different houses, though, right?"

"Oh yeah."

"Great!"

"Come, Mr. Fenton, we should get you fitted for a blazer. All of your things are already being moved to your room as we speak." Crowler lead him to the doors to the arena, where Vlad was waiting.

"Excellent, Daniel. You've really made me proud."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks for making me go through with this whole thing."

"You're quite welcome, Daniel. Although I have to say you didn't to sacrifice _all_ of the duplicates in order to win."

"Yeah I know, but like I said, I love seeing Plasmius get beaten. Oh, and Vlad?"

"Yes, Daniel?" Vlad called as Danny was being led away.

"Get a cat!" Danny shouted, then turned a corner and disappeared.

* * *

I made up all of the attack and defense points for Danny's monsters, but I tried as best I could to take Jayden's mosters attack and defense points from the TV show, so sorry if I didn't get them all right! Anyway, R&R. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but if you really want more chapters on Danny's life at Duel Academy, who am I to refuse? Although it did take a _really_ long time to get the duel just right, especially considering I had to engineer Danny's monsters attack points just right to get the life points the way I needed them. I probably won't be putting in very many other duels because of that, both that and the fact that I don't know anyone else's mosters attack/defense points.

I just _had_ to make Danny an Obelisk because their jackets match his eyes. God, I sound like a fangirl now. Somebody slap me upside the head, quickly!


	2. Chapter 2

I was planning on keeping this a one-shot, but a few of you wanted more, so _viola!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!**

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Danny lay on his huge bed glancing around his equally huge room. Crowler had been right; all of his things had already been brought here. The posters were even already on the walls! They had really thought of everything. _Yeah, I could get used to this type of treatment,_ he thought. His neighbors had told him that his room used to belong to some stuck-up rich kid named Chazz Princeton, but that he had left the academy and then come back, and so as punishment he had to live in the Slifer dorms. Go figure.

Anyway, after he won the duel, Crowler had lead him away to get fitted for his school uniform. First-year students in his house were required to wear black slacks and a black shirt, as well as a royal blue blazer that fanned out a bit at the end. The walls of his room were blue, as well as the covers of his bed. _Thank God I like the color blue, or I wouldn't last a day here._ In addition to the uniform, students had to carry their decks around with them at all times, though they didn't necessarily need their duel disks. Crowler had given Danny a belt with a square pouch attached to it that he could keep his deck in.

At the moment, Danny was flipping through cards in his deck. The majority of the monsters were ghosts, either enemies of his or allies, such as Wulf. The only exception he could see to this was Valerie the Ghost Slayer (1500/1200), who, on the turn in which she's summoned, destroys all ghosts on the field. _Mmm…I could use that ability in conjunction with Cujo…_he thought, then burst out laughing at the thought of Valerie actually _helping_ the very dog that had ruined her life and caused her to become a ghost hunter in the first place. Suddenly, a miniature Box Ghost rose up out of his deck.

"I am the spirit of the Box Ghost! Beware!"

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. But if he came to life, then maybe…" Danny flipped through his deck until he found the trap card he was looking for-Fenton Thermos, which trapped ghost-type monsters inside, much like a Dragon Capture Jar. He held the card up and a blue vortex emanated from it, sucking the duel spirit inside. "Now that was just creepy." He put the card back into his deck when his phone began vibrating. He put it to his ear and heard Tucker's voice on the other end.

"Where are you? Sam and I were at your house, but you weren't there. We asked where you were and your parents told us something about Vlad and Japan. What's going on?"

"Well, Vlad convinced my parents to let him enroll me at this school where kids play a card game called Duel Monsters. It's located on an island near Japan."

"That's it? All you guys do is play games? Man, I'd like to go to a school like that!"

"It's not as simple as all that…there are different types of cards, and you have to combine them strategically in ways that allow you to eliminate all of your opponents' life points."

"And how do you do that?"

"Each player summons monsters based on the five cards in their hand, and the object is to use your monsters to attack your opponent. But they can summon their own monsters and traps to defend themselves. Each person has to work around these obstacles and whoever has any life points at the end of the match is declared the winner."

"Cool! What are your monsters like?"

"It's kind of funny; Vlad gave me my deck, and all of the monsters are based off of ghosts that we've encountered. And there's one of me."

"One of your monsters is based off of Phantom? Is it powerful?"

"He's more powerful than a lot of the cards, but there are others that he's weaker than."

"Who else do you have?"

"I had to duel someone so they could test my skill, and in that duel I ended up using Box Lunch and the Box Ghost-"

"How would they make much of a dent in your opponent's life points?"

"They wouldn't; I used them as sacrifices to summon more powerful monsters. Anyway, I used both Skulker ant Technus, and a card based on Cujo that has a neat ability; when the puppy version is killed, I can use a spell card to summon his scary version. I used them, the one based off of me, Plasmius…and Dan."

"Dan! There's a monster based off of Dan?"

"Yeah, and get this-in this game you can fuse specific monsters to create more powerful ones. The way to get Dan is by fusing Phantom with Plasmius. And Dan is really powerful; he ended up winning the duel for me by using the Ghostly Wail."

"I don't know whether to be awed or freaked out by that."

"Honestly? Me neither."

"But you won, though."

"Yeah, I won with absolutely no dueling experience and a deck I had never seen before."

"Was the guy you were facing tough?"

"Oh yeah. I heard someone say that he was one of the best duelists in the school, but he's a really cool guy. Before the match, I was close to having a breakdown in the locker room and he gave me some encouragement. This was before I had known that I would be dueling him. All of his cards are elemental heroes."

"Are there technology-type monsters?"

"No, but there are machine types. Don't tell me you're getting into this too, Tuck."

"Nah, I'm just curious, is all. Anyway, at this point Sam's threatening me with the Fenton Bazooka if I don't let her have the phone already, so I'm gonna pass it off. Ttyl, man."

"Yeah, talk to you later."

"DANNY! Where are you? You had us all worried sick!" Sam's voice shouted into the phone.

"Sam, it's okay. Right now I'm on an island just off the coast of Japan."

"Japan is made up of islands, Danny. You can't be off the coast of an archipelago." He smacked his forehead.

"You get the picture. Anyway, Vlad enrolled me in a school dedicated to this game called Duel Monsters."

"Wait a minute…did you just say Duel Monsters? As in Yu-Gi-Yoh?"

"Uh…I guess…what's Yu-Gi-Yoh?"

"Just one of the most awesome Anime's ever. Are you really a duelist now?"

"Yeah, I suppose so."

"What type are your monsters?"

"Ghost type."

"I've never heard of that before. Is it new?"

"In a manner of speaking. Vlad handed me a deck and when I looked through it the monster cards were all based off of ghosts that we've met. And Valerie."

"Is there one of you?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it has a special ability; it wasn't in the duel long enough for me to find out."

"Why? Was it destroyed?"

"Nah, I used Polymerization to fuse it with Plasmius to create Dan."

"Holy crap! Is Dan powerful in Duel Monsters?"

"Yeah, insanely. He gets 1000 attack points for every monster in my graveyard. Since I had 9 at the time, he got 9000 points and his Ghostly Wail won me the duel."

"You won?"

"Yep! I'm 1 and 0."

"Why did they make you duel on your first day?"

"At the academy I'm at there are three houses. They decide what house to put you in based on how well you duel. Since I came back from behind to such an awesome victory they put me in the highest house, Obelisk blue."

"Obelisk? That's named after one of the three Egyptian God Cards, some of the most powerful cards in the game. They've been lost for a long time, though. Are the other two houses Ra yellow and Slifer red?"

"Yeah. Why, are those the other two god cards?"

"Yeah. So, you're in the highest house. Just promise me you won't turn into a prep on me." Danny chuckled. _Same old Sam,_ he thought.

"Don't worry about that. The kid I dueled was really good. He's in Slifer, the lowest house, but the two of us are friends now. I'm not going to hang out with kids based on what house they're in."

"I have trained you well, young grasshopper." Danny laughed. Suddenly, a bell rang.

"Sorry Sam, but I have to go for dinner now."

"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot about the time difference; it's only 10:00 AM by us. Talk to you real soon, I hope."

"Yeah, talk to you soon." He hung up. Just before he went downstairs, he flipped through his deck one more time and a tear welled up in his eye as he noticed the magic card he had seen before in the locker room: A Halfa's sidekick. It allowed him to summon the card based off of his ghost mode to the field at any point during the duel. It was illustrated with a picture of himself in ghost mode, in a three-way hug with Tucker and Sam.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!**

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The halfa descended a large staircase and entered the banquet hall, where everyone was standing around waiting for something. He was approached by Dr. Crowler.

"We've been waiting for you, Mr. Fenton! This whole banquet was thrown in honor of your acceptance into Obelisk blue!"

"Really? A banquet just for me?" Danny blushed slightly at being the center of attention. Crowler turned around to face the rest of the Obelisks.

"Our guest of honor has arrived, so let the banquet begin!" Everyone applauded and began talking excitedly. Danny was introduced to legions of people who all treated him respectfully, despite the fact that some of them were obviously several years older than him. They had finally begun to leave him alone and he was just going to get a drink when he was approached by two more people; a strikingly pretty blonde and a tall boy with long, green hair.

"Hi, my name's Alexis Rhodes," the girl introduced herself.

"And I'm Zane Truesdale," the other echoed. "We know the guy you defeated earlier today."

"You both know Jayden? Cool. He was really nice to me before the duel even started; he's one of my only real friends here on the island so far."

"That's nice to know," Alexis responded. "We just wanted to make sure that you weren't feeling superior to him just because he's a Slifer."

"What does being a Slifer have to do with anything?" he asked, a confused look apparent on his face.

"Well, Slifer is the lowest house, and because of that people tend to think that Slifer students are nothing but slime."

"Yeah, I remember Crowler calling Jayden something like a 'Slifer slacker.' But I don't believe that the group a person belongs to is necessarily an insight as to what kind of person they are." _I've been discriminated against enough for being a ghost; I should know that better than anyone._ Alexis and Zane smiled.

"I'm glad that you're so open-minded, Danny. Oh, and by the way, congratulations on your win." They both walked away, and Crowler took the opportunity to march up to him.

"I see you've met Zane and Alexis. They're two of our best duelists, and are both virtually undefeated!"

"Really? They're the best duelists in the entire school?" _Wow…they sure don't give off an aura of being the best. They must both be really modest._

"Except maybe that Slifer slacker, Jayden. But he hasn't managed to beat Zane, and you were able to defeat him, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so." _Wow, they were right about people being prejudiced based on a person's housing. Jayden's a great guy and a master duelist, but Crowler is biased against him just because he's a Slifer._

Danny schmoozed for another couple of hours before he finally went to bed. He was so exhausted; he was already half asleep as he changed into his pajamas (which were also blue). He sank into his nice, blue bed and fell asleep instantly.

The alarm went off at 7:30. Danny shot out of bed yelling, "It's a lie, I'm not a ghost!" He stopped and looked around, at first unsure of where he was. Then, the events of the previous day hit him. "I'm at a school devoted to playing card games, I'm apparently one of the top players because I beat another kid who's also supposedly really good, I got into the most prestigious house and saw a spirit of the card modeled after the Box Ghost, and had a banquet thrown for me. Great."

He went down to the dining hall and ate breakfast, which would have been sumptuous by anybody's standards. But to Danny, who regularly woke up to eggs tainted with ectoplasm, a continental breakfast was heaven on earth. He happily dug into a stack of buttermilk pancakes and soon lost himself amidst their fluffy goodness.

After breakfast, Danny went outside at ran into Jayden at the intersection between his dorm, the Slifer dorm, and the main campus, and the four of them made their way to class.

"Hey, Jayden!"

"Danny! These are my friends Syrus and Chum-lee." Danny shook hands with the other two Slifers.

"Hey," he said, inspecting Syrus, "You look a lot like an Obelisk I met last night, Zane Truesdale."

"That's because he's my older brother," the small student replied. "I don't see how we resemble each other, though; Mom says that I got all the looks." Danny rolled his eyes.

"If you say so." Suddenly, he remembered the ascension of the small spirit from his deck. "Have any of you ever heard of a monster coming out of its card and communicating with you?"

"Oh, yeah, a Duel Spirit! A few of us have them including Chum-lee, Chazz, and I. Actually, Chazz has a bunch, but that's besides the point…why do you ask?"

"Because last night I saw a duel spirit from one of my cards."

"Really? Which one?" Danny held up the Box Ghost card. Jayden squinted at the writing.

"The Box Ghost, huh?"

"I kind of figured that if this kind of thing actually existed then he'd be the one to start bothering me, though."

"Why do you say that?"

"I'm from Amity Park, which is the most severely haunted town in America. All of my monsters are based off of ghosts that have actually been seen haunting Amity, and the Box Ghost is by far the most annoying. He appears at least three times a day, and never leaves me alone. I figured that if any of the monsters in my deck would come to haunt me, then he'd be the perfect fit. Except maybe for Phantom…"

"Can I see Phantom again?" Danny held up the card depicting him in ghost mode.

"Well, that's an easy one! His stats are 1800/2000. Duel Spirits only occur in monsters that have really low attack points. Since the Box Ghost only has 500, he's more likely to form a duel spirit. For example, my duel spirit is Kuriboh (200/300). Chazz's duel spirits are the three Ojama Brothers, all of whom have 0 attack points. Why would you think that Phantom would have a duel spirit?"

"He and I have a…connection."

"How do you mean? I mean, he _does_ look like you, only with white hair and green eyes."

"It's more than that…I'm really sorry, but I only met you yesterday and it's a secret I can't even tell my parents, so you have to understand if I can't really tell you yet…"

"But every one of your monsters has haunted Amity Park at least once?"

"Just about."

"Well, I'd hate to have to be there when Dan Phantom is attacking. Man, that was one _powerful_ move. He must be a really tough opponent to face."

"You have no idea," Danny said darkly. He made to sit down in the lecture hall with them, but was stopped. Apparently, he needed to sit with the other Obelisks higher up. He shrugged, waved goodbye to his friends, and climbed another few sets of stairs. His neighbor nudged him, and he turned around to see what was up.

"Y'see that feller in black?" The boy's drawl reminded Danny of Walker. He followed his gaze and noticed for the first time a student that wasn't in uniform. He was wearing black clothes like the first-year Obelisks, but on top of that he wore a black coat instead of his house colors. He also had black hair and black irises. He wore a pained look on his face as he grudgingly sat down with the Slifers.

"That's the man that used to have yer room."

"Chazz Princeton?"

"That's the one." Danny was about to respond but the lesson started. Five minutes in, Danny was inundated with information. There was certainly more to this card game than met the eye! He gazed around the room and noticed that Jayden and Syrus were both sound asleep. _Heh…reminds me of myself in Lancer's class_. He felt a vein throb in his temple as he tried to keep up with what the instructor was saying.

By lunchtime Danny felt a migraine coming on. He held his head dazedly as he stumbled after Jayden, Syrus, and Chum-lee to the cafeteria.

"What's up, Danny? Are you okay?" Jayden asked concernedly.

"Fine," Danny responded, giving his head a little shake. "Just a little bogged down with so much new material, you know?"

"What new material? Today was all review!"

"Not for me. I told you in the locker room that I had no dueling experience. I wasn't lying; the first time I had ever heard of Duel Monsters was when Vlad shoved my deck into my hands on the ride over here." Jayden stood there, stunned.

"You mean you'd _never_ heard of Duel Monsters before?"

"No, never."

"HA!" A mean voice carried across the hallway. The four friends turned around to behold Chazz approaching them.

"Jayden beat Banner, the seventh Shadow Rider, and even beat Yugi's deck, but he couldn't stand up to a guy who learned what Duel Monsters was ten minutes before stepping into the arena? Pathetic." Jayden was about to respond, but Danny intervened.

"Oh yeah, well if you think that Jayden's pathetic, maybe you need to be introduced to the mirror that I like to call Phantom."

"Is that a challenge? Fine. Sunset outside of the Slifer dorms. I'll be waiting for you, Fen-_toenail_." He stalked off. Jayden grabbed Danny's arm and dragged him towards the cafeteria.

"Hey, what gives?"

"We gotta eat quickly so that we have enough time to train you up in the basics of dueling if you want to take on Chazz!" They ran into the cafeteria, hastily wolfed down a pair of sandwiches apiece, and dashed over to the intersection where they split up so that Danny could get his duel disk. After he got the device he ran back down the road to the intersection and kept running until he saw a rather large, red shanty overlooking the ocean. Jayden was standing just outside.

"You live here?" Danny asked, eyeing the building that looked more like a beach house than an actual dorm.

"Yup! Home sweet home!"

"Interesting…well, you're the expert. Where do we begin?"

"First, let me see your deck." Danny handed it to him, and he began to look through the cards. Suddenly, he paused. "Who are these two?" he asked, holding up the spell card that Danny had noticed earlier.

"Those are my two best friends, Sam and Tucker."

"You hang around them…they're hugging Phantom…you say that you have a connection with Phantom…the Good Halfa…wait a second. Does Halfa mean half ghost?"

"Well…I…uh…" Danny stammered.

"I knew it. You're the Halfa. You're Danny Phantom!" Danny sighed.

"Yeah, I'm Phantom. But don't tell anyone! It's hard enough keeping a secret identity with only four people knowing, all the more so five."

"Don't worry, I won't tell…if you show me some of your powers!"

"Really? You mean you're not freaked out by the fact that I'm public ghost enemy #1?"

"Yeah I mean it!" Danny grinned from ear to ear. He attached the deck to his duel disk, put the device on his arm, glanced around to make sure that no one else was around, and then shouted his battle cry.

"Going ghost!" he yelled as the rings of light surrounded his body and traveled in opposite directions as he morphed into his ghost mode. He noticed that his blue jacket was now green, and that the duel disk was still there but now it was black with white flames going across it. Besides for those two changes, he was still wearing the familiar HAZMAT. He grabbed Jayden's upper arm and made the two of them invisible.

"Whoa…this is awesome!"

"It gets better," Danny said, and took flight. The two zigzagged across the island and retuned to the dorm an hour later. Jayden's hair was significantly worse for the wear.

"Whoa…windswept much?" Jayden shrugged and activated his duel disk.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked.

"Training you. Come on and get your game on!" Danny changed back into a human, activated his duel disk, and the two began their duel.

"I'll start out by playing Elemental Hero Bubbleman (800/1400) in attack mode," Jayden began. "And since I don't have any other monsters or traps out on the field, I get to draw two cards," he drew. "Lucky me; I drew Bubble Blaster, which lets me equip Bubbleman with an extra 1000 attack points. Oh, and by the way, if Bubbleman gets attacked, the blaster gets hit instead of him." The hero materialized on the field and his attack points rose to 1800.

"I'll place one monster face down, and I'll also lay two additional facedowns."

"In that case, I'll just have Bubbleman destroy that facedown monster." Jayden commanded the elemental hero to attack, and it destroyed the facedown monster. That monster turned out to be Cujo the Puppy, and Danny's life points dropped to 2200.

"You shouldn't leave such a weak monster facedown, especially since my Bubbleman was stronger than normal; it won't help you in the long run to sacrifice your life points like that."

"Oh, won't it?" Danny asked, a sly grin on his face. "I activate my first facedown, Malfunctioning Fenton Portal. This card changes all monsters on the field to Ghost Type." The first facedown rose up to reveal an illustration of the Fenton Portal before Danny had gone inside to fix it. There was a flash of green light and Bubbleman's armor became green; his Bubble Blaster became a Fenton Bazooka and he had a ghostly aura around him.

"Now I summon Valerie the Ghost Slayer to the field!" The red huntress (1500/1200) appeared in front of him atop her jet-sled. "And she has a special ability-on the turn that she's summoned, she automatically destroys every Ghost Type monster on the field!" Valerie hefted her Ecto-Bazooka and fired a beam of pink energy at Bubbleman, but he ghostly Elemental Hero held up his Bubble-Blaster-turned-Fenton-Bazooka, which was destroyed in its place. Bubbleman's attack points decreased back to 800.

"Don't forget about Bubbleman's special ability," Jayden warned. "Always remember what your opponent's monsters are capable of, otherwise you're at a severe disadvantage."

"Don't worry, I didn't forget. Valerie still has her attack." Valerie fired another shot with her Ecto-Bazooka, this time hitting Bubbleman dead on and destroying him, at the same time bringing Jayden's life points down to 3300.

"And now I activate my other facedown, Chew Toy! I'll use it to summon Cujo the Guard Dog, who can now attack you directly." The second facedown was revealed to be Cujo's pink chew toy, which brought forth the more imposing ghost dog. He attacked Jayden's life points directly and reduced them to 1300.

"Great move!" Jayden congratulated. He drew. "I play Pot of Greed, which lets me draw an additional two cards." He drew again. "Sweetness! I fuse Avion and Burstinatrix to summon my most famous monster, the Flame Wingman!" Polymerization materialized in front of Jayden, and the two monsters appeared and swirled together in a red and green vortex. The whirlpool slowed down and became the Flame Wingman (2100/1600). "Flame Wingman, attack Cujo with skydive scorcher!" The hero flew up into the air and descended with his signature attack, destroying the dog and bringing Danny's life points down to 2100. Danny yelled and sank down to his knees.

"Okay," Danny gasped as he slowly stood up. "I'm still in the game."

"But not for long! Flame Wingman's special ability is that once he destroys a monster, that monster's attack points are dealt directly to you as damage!" The Flame Wingman opened it's claw right in front of Danny and blasted him with fire, reducing his life points to 100. "I throw down three facedowns and end my turn."

_This doesn't look good,_ Danny thought to himself. _I'm on my last legs here, and if that Flame Wingman takes out any more of my monsters and by some miracle I survive the initial attack, there's no way I can survive that special ability. I'll have to destroy it now, but I'll need to get a really good draw._ He drew. _Not what I was looking for, but it should get the job done_.

"I play the field spell Ghost Zone!" suddenly, Jayden and Danny were floating in a swirling green universe filled with purple doors of all shapes and sizes.

"Whoa…what is this place?" Jayden asked in awe.

"This is the Ghost Zone. It's the realm where ghosts live when they're not trying to haunt the human plane, and also where I have to send them once I defeat them in battle. This field spell card has two effects. First, all Ghost Type monsters in play gain an additional 500 attack and defense points. Second, I can summon as many Ghost Type monsters to the field from my hand as I want in the same turn. So, I'll start out by summoning Ember (1400/1200) and Johnny 13 (1650/1250). Oh, and before I forget, whenever Johnny is out on the field, I'm allowed to automatically summon his girlfriend, Kitty (1350/950), from my deck." The three monsters appeared in front of him, and all of their stats rose by 500, making them (1900/1700) for Ember, (2150/1770) for Johnny, and (1850, 1450) for Kitty.

"As you may or may not have realized by now, I don't need _all_ of these monsters to take you out. They're just there as a precaution. Johnny, attack the Flame Wingman!" Johnny's shadow broke away from its owner and attempted to slash the fusion monster.

"Not so fast. I've got a facedown, remember?" It's Emergency Provisions, which gives me 1000 life points for every trap card that I sacrifice." All three of the trap cards shattered and Jayden's life points went back up to 3300.

"Fine, but my attack's still on." Johnny's shadow tore into the Flame Wingman and brought Jayden's life points down to 3250. "Now Kitty, it's your turn. Attack Jayden directly!" Kitty hit Jayden with her handbag and his life points fell to 1600. "And finally, finish it, Ember!" The rocker ghost hit Jayden with a blast from her guitar that brought his life points down to zero.

"It seems that I keep losing to sonic attacks," Jayden said jokingly. Danny shrugged.

"Dan's Ghostly Wail and Ember are the only attacks I've got that involve sound. There's not much else I can play around with where that's concerned."

"Well, you managed to beat me twice in two days and I've only seen a fraction of your deck so far, so I'd say that there's still plenty of room to play around."

"I guess." The two boys squinted as the sun began its descent below the horizon. All of a sudden, Chazz landed directly in-between the two duelists.

"How did you do that?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"I live right there," Chazz pointed directly above them, where one of the dorm rooms was off of its hinges.

"I see. Well, are you ready for your beating or would you rather take a rain check."

"Oh, I'm ready now." He paused. "Wait, I mean no, I want my beating later, I mean no, you'll be getting my beating, I mean I'll be giving my beating to you, I mean-" he continued to blabber. "You know what I mean," he finally said. "You'll be the one getting beaten, you'll see." They both activated their duel disks.

"DUEL!" they shouted.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!**

* * *

"I'll start by summoning my trusty Ojama Yellow (0/500)," Chazz shouted. "And on the turn that he's summoned, I can automatically summon his brothers, Ojamas Green and Black!" the three brothers appeared in front of him. "And now I play the magic card Ojama Delta, which gives you Ojama tokens. Oh, and by the way, if they ever get destroyed, you lose 600 life points for each of them. Finally, I'll use Polymerization to fuse my three brothers into Ojama King (0/500). And he has a special effect-he can block up to two of your monster card slots." A miniature Ojama King stamped Danny's two remaining slots so that he couldn't play any monsters on them.

"Hey, I can't play any monsters!" Danny exclaimed.

"That's the idea, loser." Danny's left eye twitched.

"Do. Not. Call. Me. A. Loser!" he shouted. "Now I'm going to make your beating twice as hard! I'll sacrifice one of the tokens to summon Technus (2000/2000)." His life points fell to 3400 as one of the tokens was destroyed, and the Ghost Master of Science and Electrical Technology materialized in its place. "Now I'll use Polymerization to fuse him with Skulker to create SkulkTech 9.9 (2800/2500)! Oh yeah, and he has a special effect-he can undo any enhancement to a monster that's been made via a magic card, including Polymerization." SkulkTech shot a white energy beam out of his right palm that caused Ojama King to revert back to the three distinct Ojama brothers.

"Argh!" Chazz cried as his life points fell to 1200. "I'll teach you to mess with me! I'll put my two remaining Ojama Brothers in defense mode and summon Armed Dragon level 3 in defense mode. I'll also play three facedowns."

"Fine by me. SulkTech 9.9, attack his Armed Dragon!"

"Not just yet! I activate a trap, Ojama shield! It allows one of my Ojama brothers to take the hit instead of Armed Dragon at no cost to my life points!" Ojama green jumped in the way of the attack and was destroyed.

"In that case, I'll end my turn."

"Great. I upgrade my Armed Dragon to level 5 (2600/2200). Even though he can't attack SkulkTech directly, I can still use his special ability-by sending a monster card to the graveyard, I can take out one monster on your side of the field that has less attack points than the discarded monster." Chazz took a card from his hand and sent it to the graveyard, and Armed Dragon destroyed one of Danny's two remaining Ojama tokens, thereby decreasing his life points to 2800. "Oh yeah, and I'm putting him in Attack Mode." The dragon stood up from his crouched position and roared.

_I need to get rid of that Dragon!_ Danny thought. "I attack your Armed Dragon once again with my SkulkTech!"

"Too bad for you I have another Ojama Shield!" Ojama black, the last of Chazz's three brothers on the field, jumped in front of the blast and was destroyed.

"I guess I have no choice but to end my turn."

"That's right you don't! I upgrade my Armed Dragon to level 7 (2800/2400), and use his special ability. He can destroy all monsters on the field with less attack points than the monster I send to the graveyard." He discarded another card and Danny's last Ojama token was destroyed, thereby lowering his life points to 2200. "And I attack your SkulkTech with Armed Dragon's attack!"

"Both of our monsters have 2800 attack points! They'll both be destroyed!" Danny exclaimed.

"For now. But I play my facedown, the equip card Reinforcements! This gives my Armed Dragon an additional 500 attack points. Armed Dragon, attack!" The dragon (3300/2400) slashed SkulkTech 9.9 with his claws and the giant robot exploded. When the smoke cleared Danny's life points had dropped to 1700. Danny drew, and started chuckling.

"What are you laughing about?" Chazz demanded.

"Thanks for freeing up my monster card slot, Chazz. You just won me the duel."

"And how, may I ask, do you plan on beating me when you have no traps or monsters, and next turn I can attack you directly with a monster powerful enough to wipe out all of your life points?"

"Like this-I play the magic card Overshadow!" The hologram of a card illustrated with a ghost flying into a human appeared on his side of the field. "It lets me take over one of your monsters."

"Like Change of Heart?" Jaden interrupted.

"How does that one work?" Danny asked.

"When you play it, you can take over one of your opponents monsters for one turn."

"Oh. Yeah, this is like that, except there's no limit on how long I can control a monster."

"What?" Chazz exclaimed. "So you can use it to overshadow a monster for the entire duel if you want to?" Danny shrugged.

"As long as the host doesn't fight it, a ghost can stay in their body for an infinite period of time. That's probably why there's no limit on the card. But that's not what you should be worried about, because our duel ends this turn. I'm using Overshadow on your Armed Dragon, and having it attack you directly!" Armed Dragon's eyes began glowing green. He turned around and swung his tail at Chazz. The spiked ball on the end made contact, and caused Chazz's life points decrease to zero. Chazz fell to his knees.

"I can't believe I lost to a novice! How embarrassing is that?" he lamented.

"Almost as embarrassing as having spent three turns building up a super-powerful monster only to have it be used against you," Danny offered.

"Shut up, you. Just because I lost, doesn't mean you're better than me. I'm Chazz Princeton, and one day you'll all respect me!"

"Yeah, as soon as I start respecting the Box Ghost," Danny snickered.

"What'd you say, punk?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all."

"Good. It'd better be nothing." He stalked back up to his room and sat on his bed in a huff.

"Danny, that was amazing!" Jaden exclaimed. The halfa shrugged.

"It's not that big of a deal, really."

"Well, you're undefeated after three duels. That's more than I can say."

"What? I thought you were, like, the best duelist in the school!"

"I had one defeat. It was my third duel, against Zane."

"Whoa, he must be tough."

"Yeah, his Cyber N Dragon is really something else. But it's late, you should be getting back to your dorm before you miss curfew." Danny checked his watch and jumped a foot in the air.

"Yeah, I really gotta run! See you tomorrow, Jaden!"

"See ya, Danny!" The Slifer returned to his dorm as the Obelisk dashed away down the path.


	5. Chapter 5

Yes, I know it's been a good several months since I last updated. I was originally going to disband this fic, but over the last week or two I've gotten a bunch of reviews and PM's telling me to continue. So, here goes!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.**

**Disclamer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Yoh GX!**

* * *

A glowing figure flew over Duel Academy. As it passed over each dormitory, it paused for a couple of minutes, as though it was expecting something. When nothing happened, it continued on to the next dorm. 

Danny was sleeping in his large, blue bed when all of a sudden, his ghost sense went off. Simultaneously surprised and annoyed that a ghost would be here, of all places, he transformed into Phantom and took off into the night in search of the ghost, his green jacket billowing behind him in his slipstream.

The halfa followed his ghost sense until he caught up to the ghost, and slowly approached it. This ghost was dressed up like a jester from the middle ages, complete with goofy pied costume and spiky hat. The only modern thing about this ghost was a duel disk on his right arm. Danny took aim and pointed his index finger at the ghost, and fired a needle-thin ghost ray at it. The green energy beam took the ghost by surprise, and it descended a couple of feet in the air. As soon as it righted itself, the ghost flew up until it was floating level with Danny.

"Ah, I've been looking for you, halfa," it said.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one before. Who are you?" Danny asked, annoyed.

"Call me Loki," the figure said, and gave a slight bow. The bells on his hat jingled. "Ghost of games. I've been sent here to test your dueling skills, you see." Danny contemplated this. While it wouldn't be too difficult to fight this ghost, he hadn't brought a Fenton Thermos to Duel Academy, so he wouldn't have any place to put him. If he dueled, maybe this ghost would go back to whoever sent him, and Danny wouldn't have to worry about him any more. He wondered who had sent him, though.

"Fine," Danny said, then flew back to his dorm. When he returned, he was wearing his duel disk. "If I do this, though, you have to promise me that you'll leave me alone."

"Very well," the jester replied.

"DUEL!" Both of them shouted, and their duel disks activated.

"I'll start," Loki began. "I'll play Ghost Vulture (500/1000) in Attack Mode," one of Vlad's vulture minions appeared on the board. "And due to a special ability, I'm allowed to summon the other two from my deck automatically." There were two flashes of light, and the other two vultures appeared flanking the first. "Finally, I'll play two facedown cards and end my turn."

Now, there was no doubt in Danny's mind that Vlad had sent this Loki ghost. Furthermore, Danny surmised that Loki would probably be dueling in a manner similar to the way Vlad fought. That meant that Danny would probably do more harm than good with a direct assault. He decided to play it safe by starting out with a monster in Defense Mode.

"I'll play Skulker (1400/2200) in defense mode, and call it a turn," Danny said. "Ha! None of your monsters are strong enough to get through Skulker's armor."

"Maybe they don't have to," Loki retorted. He drew, and smirked. "First, I play Ectopus (200/300). And while it's on the field, I can automatically summon its partner." The two Ectopuses materialized in front of him.

"Yeah, now you've got five weak monsters on the field," Danny shouted.

"It's chess, halfa," Lokie replied in a way that creepily reminded Danny of Vlad. "Sacrifices must be made. Pawns must be eliminated in order to make room for the king and knight. First, the knight."

"And how, exactly, do you plan on doing that?" Danny asked.

"Like this. First, I play the magic card Spectral Sensor. It alerts any ghost hunters in the area that a ghost is around, and forces them onto the field. And you know what happens when a certain ghost hunter is released from your deck, no?"

"What? What are you talking about?" All of a sudden, Danny's deck began glowing. There was a flash of light and Valerie the Ghost Slayer (1500/1200) appeared on the field. Her special ability activated, and Skulker, the Vultures, and the Ectopuses were all sent to the graveyard.

"You just destroyed all your own monsters!" Danny exclaimed, confused at Loki's tactics.

"All in good time, child. Right now, I believe I was saying something about summoning a knight. I play a second magic card, Soul Shredder, which allows me to Special Summon Fright Knight (2400/2200)!" The Fright Knight appeared floating in front of Loki, and immediately slashed Valerie with his sword. Danny groaned as his Life Points were reduced to 3100.

"Oh, and did I mention what whenever Fright Knight destroys a monster, it's removed from play?" Loki casually asked. Danny clapped a hand to his forehead.

"I'll play Box Ghost, but sacrifice him to summon Plasmius (2500/2200) in Attack Mode," he said. Plasmius materialized in front of him. Unfortunately, since Danny had summoned him in Attack Mode, he couldn't use Duplication. "Now, attack Fright Knight!" Danny shouted. Plasmius fired a pink ghost ray at the Fright Knight and destroyed him, in the process lowering Loki's Life Points to 3900. He expected Loki to be angry, or at least a little frustrated. What he didn't expect was for Loki to start laughing. He began chuckling, then laughed harder, then harder, then was clutching his sides and laughing and insane laughter.

"Uh, are you okay?" Danny asked him.

"Never better!" Loki replied happily. "For you see, that really didn't do a thing. Remember that facedown from before?" Danny nodded. "Well, now I'm playing it. You see, that facedown card was the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. And when I have at least five monsters in the graveyard, I'm allowed to use it to summon Pariah Dark, the King of All Ghosts (4000/4000)!" Danny gasped as the facedown rose up to reveal the sarcophagus he'd trapped the Ghost King in after Plasmius had foolishly released him. An exact replica of the sarcophagus materialized, and then opened up. Pariah Dark stepped out and growled, brandishing his mace menacingly.

"Oh, and while he's on the field, his servant, the Fright Knight, is allowed to come back from the Graveyard each time he's been destroyed." The Fright Knight reappeared next to Pariah and held out the Soul Shredder.

"Pariah, attack Plasmius!" The Ghost King fired a crimson ghost ray at Plasmius, who exploded and brought Danny's Life Points down to 1600. "Consider yourself lucky that the Fright Knight needs to wait one turn after being regenerated before he can attack, because otherwise I could attack you directly and you'd have lost all of your Life Points this turn." Danny hung his head, his messy black hair covering his eyes. He couldn't see a way out of this: no matter what monster he summoned, Pariah would just destroy it. And if that didn't finish up his Life Points for good, the Fright Knight's follow up certainly would. Then, an idea struck him.

"I play the field spell Ghost Zone!" He shouted. Suddenly, he, Loki, Pariah Dark, and the Fright Knight were floating through the eerie green dimension. Pariah's stats rose to (4500/4500), and those of the Fright Knight became (2900/2700).

"And since I can summon as many ghost-type monsters as I need, I summon Ember, Johnny, Kitty, Klemper, and Phantom, all in Defense Mode." The five ghosts all appeared floating in a line in front of Danny. Apparently, it didn't make a difference whether or not Danny was in ghost mode when he summoned his alter-ego.

"Fine, I'll use Pariah Dark to take out Klemper, and the Fright Knight to get rid of Phantom, just so you can't bring him back with Monster Reborn to try anything." The two ghosts easily disposed of their opponents. "And since we can summon ghost-type monsters, I think I'll summon three Skeleton Zombies (0/500)." Three glowing green skeletons burst out of graves lying on the floor of the Ghost Zone and flew up to join their masters.

"They're weak now, but if both Pariah and the Fright Knight are on the field, they gain a neat little special ability-they become kamikazes. They automatically destroy their opponents, but get destroyed in the process. The three skeletons rushed at Ember, Johnny, and Kitty, and all six ghosts were destroyed in a massive explosion.

"I was hoping you'd do that," Danny said as he drew. "Yes! I play Pot of Greed, which lets me draw two cards." He drew again. "Now I'll use Monster Reborn to bring back Plasmius from the graveyard." Plasmius appeared, and his stats became (3000/2700).

"There's no point in that," Loki chastised. "Plasmius is only powerful enough to even take on the Fright Knight, and even then I'll be able to re-summon him the next turn."

"Oh, but I don't plan on using Plasmius to attack. You see, now I'm going to play A Halfa's Sidekick, which lets me summon Phantom to the field, even though he should have been removed from play."

"What? That's not possible!" Loki shouted as the younger halfa joined the elder on the field.

"Oh, but it its," Danny replied with a smirk. "And now I'm going to use Polymerization to create Dan Phantom!" Plasmius and Phantom fused to form Dan. "And since Johnny, Kitty, Ember, Klemper, and Skulker are all in the graveyard, he gets 5000 attack points. Plus another 500 for being in the Ghost Zone." Dan's stats rose to (5500/0). Dan used his Ghostly Wail on Pariah Dark and destroyed him, lowering Loki's Life Points to 2900.

"And next turn, I'll just use him to take out Fright Knight and it's all over," Danny smirked.

"You would, if I hadn't had this magic card tucked away since the beginning of the duel in case of emergency," Loki said as the other facedown he'd placed rose up. "Ghost Shield, which prevents any ghosts from attacking my side of the field." A green bubble surrounded the Fright Knight, and Loki laughed evilly. Danny just smirked yet again.

"You forget. Vlad gave me this deck, and you're forgetting his greatest weakness."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"His obsession with my mom." Loki gawked at him.

"First, I play the field spell Ghost Arsenal." The Ghost Zone that surrounded the two duelists vanished and was replaced by the arsenal that was located at Danny's house. "This card allows any ghost hunter to attack twice in one turn. And since Vlad is obsessed with my mom, it figures that he'd make her card ridiculously powerful. I summon Maddie Fenton (3000/2500)!" Danny's mom appeared in front of him, wielding a _very_ large ectogun. Since he was no longer in the Ghost Zone, the Fright Knight's stats went down to (2500/2200). Maddie shot him with the ectogun and destroyed him, in the process lowering Loki's Life Points to 2400. She shot a second time, and Loki's Life Points fell down to zero. She disappeared as the duel ended and the two ghosts' Duel Discs retracted.

"Excellent duel, young halfa," Loki said. "My employer will be very pleased that you've picked up the nuances of this game. Very pleased indeed." Before Danny could grab him and ask him what the heck he was talking about, he had disappeared in a cloud of green smoke. Danny grumbled something incoherent as he phased down into his bedroom and changed back to human. He fell into his bed, exhausted, and immediately fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Yeah, this one's short. And late. And it doesn't have a duel in it. But there's a perfectly logical explanation: I don't know the stats of anyone else's monsters, and if I keep having him duel Jayden, you're going to get really bored, really fast. I hope this one was okay though, despite all of that.**  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Yu-Gi-Yoh GX!**

* * *

Danny slowly woke up and stretched his sore joints. He grumbled something incoherent as he rolled out of bed, shuffled into the bathroom that adjoined his room, and stepped into the shower.

"What a strange night…" he mumbled as the hot water cascaded down his back.

He left the shower, dried himself off, and wrapped the blue towel securely around his torso. He quickly checked his cell phone for any missed calls. He had one from Sam and Tucker; because of the time difference, they would call during the day but it would be the middle of the night for him. The message said that they missed him, when was he coming home, etc. Vaguely, he wondered whether or not Duel Academy even had winter break…he'd have to check it out later. He got dressed, grabbed his deck holster, and exited the Obelisk dorm.

"Danny? You look awful! Did you sleep at all last night?" Jayden asked him when he nearly nodded off as they were walking to the classroom together.

"A…bit," Danny yawned. "I had to get up at around three for my duel…"

"Oh, okay…wait a minute, _what_? A duel?"

"Yeah…this ghost appeared in the middle of the night and wanted to duel me."

"What for? If you lost, was he going to suck out your brains?" Danny, Syrus, and Chun-lee all sweatdropped.

"You haven't met very many ghosts, have you?" Danny asked acidly. Jayden laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Do duel spirits count?" He asked.

"Uh…good question, actually," Danny replied. The four of them entered the classroom and sat down in their assigned seats. A couple of minutes later, Crowler walked up to the front of the room and immediately began lecturing. Despite the fact that Danny didn't know any of the material and was trying to soak it all in, he was so exhausted that he could barely keep his eyes open. The room became hazy and everything darkened, and then…

He was standing in the middle of a grassy field. He looked around and found the place completely deserted. He noted that he was wearing a duel disk and it had his deck in it.

"Hello?" He called, but nobody answered. Then, all of a sudden, his deck began glowing.

"What the…" he muttered, and then all of a sudden-

"I am the Box Ghost!" Danny face-planted as the portly blue duel spirit emerged from the deck.

"Geez, don't you _ever_ leave me alone?" He heard himself saying. But then he did a double-take. He hadn't even opened his mouth. So what was going on? His questions were answered as the spirit of his alter-ego emerged from the deck wielding a Fenton Thermos. The Phantom spirit sucked the Box Ghost spirit into the thermos and sighed.

"Annoying, huh?" Danny asked the miniature replica.

"It's better than being stuck in a deck with every single one of your enemies put together," the spirit replied. "Imagine Vlad and Dan, as well as Skulker, Technus, and Valerie in her ghost gear, all put together. It's surprising that I haven't been torn apart molecule by molecule yet."

"All of them are duel spirits? Whoa…that must be tough…" Danny said as he gave a low whistle. The spirit shrugged.

"At least Tucker and Sam are there."

"Wait…there are monsters of Tucker and Sam?" the spirit shook his head.

"You know the magic card you played last night, A Halfa's Sidekick?" Danny nodded.

"Yeah, that's them."

"I see…on a different note, if I'm here talking to you, and you're me, does that make me schizophrenic?" The spirit just smirked and began to slip away into invisibility. Danny was about to press the issue until-

"JAYDEN!" Danny jerked awake and noticed that everyone in the classroom was looking over at the Slifer and snickering. Danny noted his dazed expression and realized that he must have been sleeping as well. It came as a surprise to him that Crowler yelled at Jayden instead of him for falling asleep.

_Gotta love that House Favoritism_, he noted wryly.

After the class had ended, and before Jayden had to serve his detention, the four friends were in the hallway outside of the classroom.

"So…what were you dreaming about?" Danny asked Jayden.

"Eh…I was talking to my Winged Kuriboh, my duel spirit."

"Really? Me too! I was talking to Phantom, though." Jayden did a double-take.

"Phantom has a duel spirit? _You fell asleep, too_?" Danny chuckled nervously and Jayden groaned.

"And yet I'm the one that gets in trouble…" he muttered.

"It's not the end of the world, Jay," Cyrus said as he patted his friend on the back.

"Yeah, you get detentions all the time," Chun-lee added. Jayden glared at him. "Hey, I'm just trying to help!" He protested as he put his hands up defensively.

"Whatever, guys…let's just go to lunch and then afterwards Jayden can go serve his punishment," Danny said. The other three's stomachs all grumbled. Danny sweatdropped. The four of them turned tail and headed towards the cafeteria for lunch.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Yu-Gi-Yoh GX!!**

* * *

"Uh…guys?" Danny asked as he nervously eyed his sandwich.

"Mm-hm?" Chun-lee's reply was muffled, as his mouth was full of food.

"I think what he means to say," Syrus interjected, "is what's up?"

"eh…what's in this thing, exactly?" Danny asked. He poked the slightly green meat experimentally, and yelped as it almost bit his finger off.

"Mystery meat," his three new friends chorused.

"Ah…"

"Next time, you should try and get the egg sandwich," Jayden suggested. "It's a competition, since there's only one in the entire cart." He pointed to a large cart in the center of the room that was full of sandwiches. "Everyone else has to have…whatever is in this stuff." Danny put his sandwich down, no longer hungry. He, Syrus, and Jayden stared at their food morosely until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Jayden sighed as he stood up.

"Time to face the music, I guess."

"Maybe not…I have an idea," Danny said, a small grin playing on his lips.

Crowler was sitting at his desk, grading tests, when Jayden and Danny walked in. He looked at Danny, surprised at his unnecessary presence. His loyalty to his friend was admirable, no doubt, but even so…it was not befitting to his house for him to fraternize with a Slifer.

"Danny? You don't have to be here," he said to the blue-jacketed boy.

"I know…I just had an idea to get Jayden out of serving a detention."

"Oh really? And what might that be?"

"A duel," Danny replied simply.

"Excuse me?" Crowler asked incredulously.

"I duel you, and if I win, Jayden doesn't have to serve his detention." Crowler considered this. He tapped his index finger on his chin thoughtfully for a bit, then looked Danny in the eye.

"Very well. Although I don't know why you would want to defend a Slifer Slacker…" the two walked to the center of the room and faced each other. Crowler attached a large metal plate to his deck, which was mounted on his chest, as Danny activated his duel disk.

"Duel!" They both shouted, then drew five cards each.

"I'll start by playing Ancient Gear Soldier (1000/1000), in defense mode," Crowler said, as the soldier, held together by iron and primitive gears, appeared in front of him.

"Then I play Meat Monster (300/200) in defense mode," Danny said. The small creature materialized and growled at Crowler's soldier.

"Come now, Danny, I thought I had taught you better than that," Crowler chastised. "To start my turn, I switch my soldier to attack mode, then I'll attack your monster." The ancient gear soldier stood up and charged at the meat monster, destroying it. Danny's life points fell to 3300. "I'll place two face-downs, and call it a turn." Two facedown cards appeared behind the soldier.

"Thanks for destroying that meat monster," Danny said, "Because whenever one's destroyed, I can automatically summon two more in its place." Two more of the meat-men appeared to replace their comrade. "And now I'll sacrifice these two to summon the Lunch Lady (1800/1500)!" The two meat monsters exploded, and from their remains a green ghost wearing the standard apron, hairnet, and rubber gloves appeared.

"Lunch Lady! Attack Crowler's Ancient Gear Soldier!" Danny shouted. The Lunch Lady's gloved hands glowed green, and she summoned several hundred kitchen knives. The knives plunged into the soldier, destroying it and lowering Crowler's life points to 3300. "I'll also play two face-downs." The cards appeared behind the ghost.

"Not bad," Crowler admitted. "But you forgot about my face-downs. You see, these are unique cards that are activated like trap cards, but act like monsters. By destroying my Ancient Gear Soldier, you've activated both of them!" Two golden snake-thingies rose up out of the cards, and then shattered. "So I'll sacrifice these two to summon my most powerful monster, the Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)!" A smokescreen covered the field and when it cleared, a humongous iron beast stood in front of Danny. The halfa gulped nervously.

"Ancient Gear Golem, use Mechanized Melee!" Crowler shouted. The golem thrust its fist forward…only to be met with a wall of meat.

"It looks like _you_ forgot about _my_ facedown!" Danny said happily. "Meat Shield-it summons a Meat Monster to the field to take the damage instead of my monster. And every time one Meat Monster gets destroyed…" two additional meat-men appeared, one on each side of the Lunch Lady. "Oh yeah, and for each Meat Monster on the field, my Lunch Lady gains an additional 500 attack points." The meat monsters jumped up onto the Lunch Lady and morphed her into her giant-meat-creature form. Her attack points rose to 2800.

"That's all well and good, but your meaty monstrosity still lacks the attack points necessary to take down my Golem," Crowler pointed out.

"True. But now I activate my other face-down, Reinforcements. It boosts my Lunch Lady's power by 500 attack points." The Lunch Lady's attack points rose to 3300. "Now, attack that Golem!" Danny shouted. The Lunch Lady thrust one of her fists, which turned into a meaty projectile. The meat-fist made contact and destroyed the Golem, causing it to shatter and also causing Crowler's attack points to drop to 3000.

"My Golem!" He cried. "You'll pay for that. I summon two more Ancient Gear Soldiers and sacrifice them." The two monsters came into existence and then shattered. "And now I play the magic card Ancient Gear Factory. It allows me to revive Ancient Gear Golem if the monsters in my graveyard have a combined total of at least eight stars." The giant assembly line rose out of the ground behind Crowler, all eight of the star-shaped markings on the main vat glowing. The Factory came to life, all of the pieces working together to produce a second Golem. Once the Factory had completed its work, the second Ancient Gear Golem stood up before Crowler.

"I'm not fool enough to attack you when that Reinforcements is still in effect," Crowler scoffed. "So I'll end my turn here and wait for that silly little trap of yours to run out of steam." Just as he predicted, the Lunch Lady's attack points immediately dropped to 2800. Danny cursed softly as he drew.

"I play Pot of Greed!" He said, then placed the card in his graveyard and drew two more. "Nice…" he mused. "First I'll sacrifice the Lunch Lady to summon Plasmius, the Evil Halfa!" said halfa popped into existence in a swirl of pink ectoplasmic energy. "Next I play the magic card, A Halfa's Sidekick, to summon Phantom to the field. And finally, I play Polymerization and combine the two halfas to create Dan Phantom, the Ultimate Enemy!" Phantom stepped onto the field, only to fuse with Plasmius a second later. Dan appeared out of the swirl of color caused by Polymerization. He shot Crowler a fanged grin that caused the man to wish he could turn invisible, or sink through the floor or…something. Something to get him as far away from the being as possible.

"Now," Danny continued. "If I'm not mistaken, there are six Meat Monsters in my graveyard in addition to the Lunch Lady. This should give Dan more than enough attack points to finish this duel." Dan's attack points rose to 7000, and the spirit unleashed a Ghostly Wail that annihilated Crowler's Ancient Gear Golem and brought his Life Points down to zero.

"I lost…to a rookie?" Crowler asked himself belatedly.

"Hey, don't feel bad," Jayden offered. "I mean, you lost to me, and Danny beat me, right?"

"Oh, be quiet, you!" Crowler snapped. Jayden ran to hide behind Danny, whose duel disk began to deactivate. Crowler sighed.

"Well, I suppose this means you're off the hook as far as detention goes, Jayden," Crowler muttered. "But don't let me catch you falling asleep in my class again!"

"Hehehe…sure thing, teach," Jayden replied nervously.

"And stop calling me 'teach'!" Crowler shouted. It was at that point that the two boys decided it was time to high-tail it out of there, which they quickly did.


	8. Chapter 8

I actually feel kinda bad for posting this so late, seeing as I actually wrote it about a week after I posted the last chapter. But, as you may or may not know, I was away from my computer for the last two and a half months, and this morning was the first chance I've had to copy this down from my notebook onto my computer. So, here it is-the finale.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Yu-Gi-Yoh GX!**

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Two figures, one dressed in red and the other in blue, slowly made their way out of the huge main building of Duel Academy.

"Dude," Jaden began, "that was so sweet!"

"Hehe…thanks," Danny replied, his voice somewhat strained. Jaden noticed this.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just…now that I beat Crowler, he'll probably call Vlad and make him bring me back home."

"What? No way! I mean, I beat Crowler on my very first day here, and I haven't been sent packing yet. The guy isn't _that_ proud that he'd send someone home because they beat him."

"But I beat a teacher," Danny argued. "That means that I've learned a lot about dueling, which is what Vlad wanted. I'm sure he'd be all too happy to have me back under his thumb again," the halfa finished bitterly.

"Well…" Jaden though for a bit, then smiled. "Then there's nothing we can do about it now except enjoy you last night here as best we can."

"I guess." Danny said, and chuckled slightly. The two spend the rest of the evening goofing off around campus and encountering some of Jaden's friends, including a Ra Yellow named Bastion who seemed like he'd get along well with Jazz. Eventually, though, nightfall was upon them and it was time to say their final goodbyes.

"Hold on," Jaden said," I want you to take this." He held up a card that read 'Hero Summon'. "Think of it as a way to remember my Elemental Heroes and I once you get back home."

"Wow…thank you…" Danny said breathlessly, shocked by the other boy's generosity. "Here, one sec…he rummaged around in his pocket, until he remembered his deck holster, then flipped through his deck until he found Phantom. "Here, take this one."

"I…I couldn't…he's your token card!" Jaden exclaimed. Danny shrugged.

"You play Elemental Hero cards. Now you have a hero whose element is spectral.

"Thanks…" Jaden said, still surprised by the gesture.

The next day, Danny's predictions came true and a helicopter landed atop Duel Academy. After a short meeting with Headmaster Shepard, Vlad escorted Danny to the chopper, only giving him time for a quick goodbye with his friends. The hybrid reluctantly boarded the aircraft, and it immediately took off. Danny morosely stared out the window and watched the island become smaller and smaller, until it completely vanished between the sky and the ocean.

"Well, what did you think, little badger?" the elder halfa asked.

"Actually," Danny said, "I really had a good time. I never thought I'd say this, but…thanks."

"Really?" Vlad asked excitedly. "Well then, I guess you don't despise me as much as-"

"But you're still a fruit loop." Vlad scowled.


End file.
